Golden State Warriors: David Lee Officially on the Trade Block

By Ryan Heckman

Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

It is no secret that the Golden State Warriors are one of the handful of teams highly interested in free agent center Dwight Howard. Many have wondered just how they plan to go after him considering their current cap situation. Now, we may have an idea.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, the Warriors have officially begun exploring trade options for center David Lee in effort to get rid of his 3 years and $44 million left on his contract.

Y! Sources: Golden State exploring trade possibilities on David Lee and $44M left on his contract. http://t.co/ZkRroTm0bk

The Warriors are considered more of a ‘wildcard’ team at this point when looking at the top franchises in the running for Howard, but that won’t stop them from getting a meeting and making their best pitch to the veteran center.

Even if Golden State fails to land Howard — which is almost certain — they will likely try and bring in another big name if they can clear the space by moving Lee.

The Warriors are a great situation for any star to come into right now, as they have plenty of pieces in place to make a serious playoff run. What makes more sense for the Warriors, at this point, is to indeed move Lee especially because of how well they did without him in the playoffs.

Lee is well respected and liked around the NBA and I am sure his talent would be appreciated by the right team. It’s just finding a team that wants to absorb his salary at this point that appears to be the biggest obstacle. With so many teams looking to be players in the 2014 NBA Free Agency period, not many are looking to take on extra contracts.